There's no such thing as Manhattan clam chowder. That stuff to which you refer is merely clam soup.

Michael, at one time that's all we ate was Manhattan clam chowder. The Purists in New England probably wanted something that showed off the pure flavor of the New England Clam. After all, you don't put cream and potatoes on a fresh Cherry stone clam on a half shell, Do You ???? I'm not even sure why they call this a chowder, Chowders are thick and made with a cream base. I have had many Manhattan clam chowders, that used fresh clams juice and fresh shucked clams. I remember people who didn't like the taste of clams eating New England clam chowder......Isn't that the reason we seek out the fried clam that is lightly dusted in flour, we want the true taste of the whole belly juicy clam taste....................pnwc

Bill, I grew up on New England clam chowder, and I remain true to that wonderful stuff. But I'll admit that I once did find a red chowder that was very close to almost as good. It was at a place in Seattle called Ivars House of Clams, and the waitress told me that if I didn't like it she'd pay for our whole meal. I really hated having to pay for that meal.

What a surprise. We walked in at 3:15PM and the place was packed. Took us a few minutes to realize the chips and salsa were help yourself. We did.

Turned out we were there at Happy Hour and there were a lot of Happy People inside. It was more of a bar that served food than a restaurant that also served drinks. The music was loud and the food was great.

We ordered off of the Patio Grill Menu and I ordered Manuel's Special Burrito with chicken solely on the sound of the ancho sauce.

Following up on the above chowder topic, here's a photo of one of the gimmicky ones. Yes, it's green! And it tasted a little minty to me, which I didn't care for. The only red version we tried tasted like vegetable soup--no real clam flavor. :(

That's supposed to be clam chowder? Except for the part where I can see a clam, I just don't think so. Especially with a minty taste. The clams are supposed to be the main flavour as far as I'm concerned.

Dinner tonight was some bean and ham soup from the freezer, because I didn't get home until 6pm instead of 3pm as I intended. I love that my freezer is full of things I can quick throw in the microwave and call dinner when I need to!

That's supposed to be clam chowder? Except for the part where I can see a clam, I just don't think so. Especially with a minty taste. The clams are supposed to be the main flavour as far as I'm concerned.

Dinner tonight was some bean and ham soup from the freezer, because I didn't get home until 6pm instead of 3pm as I intended. I love that my freezer is full of things I can quick throw in the microwave and call dinner when I need to!

Pretty strange, huh! In a lot of competitions, people will do something gimmicky in order to stand out. In this one, their theme was "Clam - I - Am" (Green soup with clam), complete with funny Dr. Seuss type hats. While I can't imagine their chowder won over the judges, they might have been going for the People's Choice Award, in which visitors vote for their favorite chowder. In fact, I voted for the firemen's chowder even though it was my second favorite, flavor-wise.

Right now lleechef has a stuffed chicken in the oven. There'll be roasted chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and beautiful Brussels sprouts for dinner tonight. Meanwhile, she's watching the official start of the Iditarod on her computer in the kitchen.